Speaker Name:
John Richardson
Speaker Affiliation:
(MIT)
Talk Subject:
Observations from the Edge of the Solar System
Date:
03/30/2010 - 13:00
Venue:
LT C, RW James
The Sun's wind blows a bubble, our heliosphere, in the interstellar material which makes up most of the Galaxy. This bubble deflects most the interstellar material around the heliosphere. It thus provides protection from energetic particles but also makes it difficult to study the interaction between the solar system and the galaxy. I will discuss results from two NASA missions who are observing this interaction:
Voyager, whose two spacecraft were launched in 1977 and are now near the edge of the solar system, and IBEX, which measures neutral atoms which form in the boundary region and then move toward Earth. The talk will emphasize what we have learned from these two missions and the many puzzles which remain.